On June 23, 1985, a bomb tore through Air-India
Flight 182 Kanishka, from Canada to India, killing all 329 people
aboard. Ajit
Jain pieces together
tragedy-scarred memories to retell a tale of bereavement, grit,
empathy and justice denied.

BUT
for a Bharatanatyam recital in Bangalore, Lata Pada would have been
aboard the Kanishka, like her husband Vishnu and their daughters
Brinda and Arti were.

Pada left her family in Sudbury, Ontario, a few
days before June 23, 1985, to practise with her guru in Mumbai,
"for a major upcoming performance.

"My elder daughter Brinda had just graduated
from high school. That’s why they stayed back," recalls Pada, a
dancer and choreographer.

Vishnu, a geologist with the INCO mining company,
had been instrumental in organising a multi-faith prayer in their city
when Prime Minister Indira Gandhi was assassinated in October 1984. He
died on the flight most believe was blown up by the same
fundamentalist ‘movement’ that targeted the Prime Minister.

"It was around mid-day (June 23, 1985) when I
got a call from my brother Ramesh Srinivasan (who was then working for
Oberoi hotels). He was checking the arrival time of the flight.

Map showing the Kanishka crash site

A family, a statistic: Lata Pada (right, foreground) with her family

"They just said there has been a problem with
the Air-India flight," says Pada, her voice choking over the
telephone.

"But when he got the second message that the
flight had disappeared from the radar screen and they were fearing the
plane had gone down and there were no survivors, it was then that he
called me.....

"At that moment my life was completely
destroyed."

She did not cry. "I was completely in shock.
They (her relatives) had to sedate me that night because they had no
idea how I would cope with it."

Susheel Gupta was 12 years old — too young to
"understand the concept of death, philosophically and
spiritually" — when his mother boarded the Kanishka. The
tragedy shaped what he is — a criminal lawyer with the Federal
Justice Department in Ottawa, and a leader of the Air-India Victims
Families Association.

"That’s why I chose criminal law over
corporate law. I felt I have a personal connection to being a
victim."

For Dr Haran Radhakrishnan, who lost his wife and
two children, "There was a feeling of disbelief. And that
disbelief still continues. It will go on forever."

Lorna Kelly, who lives in Guelph, Ontario, was 20
years old when she lost her mother Barsa Kelly in the Kanishka
bombing. Her father, a "very private person," lives apart.
Does she still think of that day 20 years ago? "Of course. Almost
every day. It destroyed our family. Because my mother was the centre
of our family."

1985, June 23, 0218 GMT : Air-India
Flight 182, a Boeing 747, Kanishka leaves Montreal, where it had
a stopover, for London, en route to Delhi and Mumbai, with 329
persons aboard.

1985, June 23, 6.20 GMT: A bomb in a
suitcase being transferred to an Air-India flight to Bangkok
explodes in the baggage handling section at Japan’s Narita
airport, killing two baggage handlers and injuring four.

1985, June 23, 7.14 GMT: The Kanishka
disappears from the radar screen at Shannon airport, Ireland.
The plane explodes in mid-air near the coast of Ireland. All
aboard are killed. Of the dead, 278 are Canadians.

1985, June 24: Wreckage found under 2,010
metres of water off Ireland. Investigators suspect a bomb blew
up the aircraft. Later in the year, then Prime Minister Rajiv
Gandhi issues an inquiry commission to investigate the bombing.

1985, September 10:Inderjit Singh Reyat
and Talwinder Singh Parmar, members of Babbar Khalsa, are
arrested in Duncan, Vancouver Island, in connection with the
Narita bombing. Charges against Parmar are dropped for the lack
of evidence. Reyat is fined for a minor explosives charge. No
link to the Kanishka case is established.

1986, January 22: The Canadian Aviation
Safety Board confirms a bomb was responsible for the tragedy.

1988, November 18: Tara Singh Hayer, a
Kanishka bombing trial witness, is murdered at his home in
Surrey, Canada.

1991, May 10: Reyat receives a 10-year
sentence for manslaughter and explosive charges related to the
Narita bombing. He is jailed at Abbotsford jail in British
Columbia.

1992, October 15: Indian police in Mumbai
kill Talwinder Singh Parmar in a gun fight.

2000, October 27: Royal Canadian Mounted
Police arrest Ripudaman Singh Malik and Ajaib Singh Bagri, based
in Canada, for their alleged role in the Kanishka bombing.

2003, February 10: Reyat pleads guilty to
a charge of aiding in the construction of a bomb and is
sentenced to five years imprisonment.

2005, March 16: British Columbia Supreme
Court Judge Ian Bruce Josephson acquits Malik and Bagri of
murder and other charges in the deaths of the people killed on
the Kanishka.

2005, March: Enraged families and
relatives of the Kanishka victims demand a public inquiry.

2005, April 27: Former Ontario premier Rob Rae appointed
to review the Kanishka bombing trial and determine whether a
public inquiry is essential.

Grief & bonding

In Mumbai, Air-India told the families the rescue
operation was on, but they did not expect any survivors. They asked
the families to come to Ireland, off the coast of which the flight had
crashed, immediately. The airline made the travel arrangements. At the
Cork airport in Ireland, the then Indian ambassador Kiran Doshi and
his wife Razia were there to meet with the families.

"They shuttled back and forth receiving family
members one after the other, escorting them to their hotels, enquiring
about their well-being, asking about their special needs and just
being very comforting," recalls Pada.

The land of leprechauns and shamrocks opened its
heart for the bereaved. Taxi drivers would not accept money.
Volunteers escorted the families, policemen politely explained the
formalities of identifying the bodies.

"Had that terrible disaster not happened, we
would never have known a nation of the kindest people in the world —
the most compassionate," says Pada. "Strangers opened up
their homes to us and their sense of identification with our grief was
unimaginable. They kept saying, ‘We are a seafaring nation and we
have grown up all our lives knowing what disaster is."

Irish comfort

The Irish "felt a particular connection to
India," Pada adds, because "they identified with their own
desire to shake of (British) colonial rule. They also have a great
deal of admiration for Mahatma Gandhi and the path of non-violence.
They really felt a great kinship with the (victims) relatives."

Kelly echoes Pada’s memories of Cork. "We
felt we were immediately embraced by an almost family-like
atmosphere."

The helpfulness and empathy of the Irish "was
extremely comforting," she says. She still corresponds with a
police officer she met there.

Lives on the wall

At a hospital in Cork, the families were taken to a
wall full of pictures of the recovered bodies — 131 of them. One
hundred and thirty one families that were lucky to catch a last
glimpse of their loved ones, or what remained of them.

Gupta remembers he was the only child there. Others
had not brought their children with them. "My father had no
choice as my brother, then 18, was off for work and there was nobody
who could take care of me."

He remembers they looked at each picture before
"we were able to find the picture of my mother. When we finally
came to my mom, it was terrifying."

For Gupta’s father Bal, the horror was magnified
when he "came across pictures of many families he had known for
30 years. He didn’t know they were on the flight — friends he had
not seen for 10 to 15 years, friends with whom he had immigrated to
Canada back in the late 1960s. He was able to identify at least eight
other families on that plane.

"Later that day, they allowed us to view the
body for confirmation. I still see images of her lying on a metal
table."

He felt "distraught and confused. As far as I
could see, her body was intact. They told us some bodies had missing
limbs, some were burnt, but my mom’s body looked intact. I didn’t
understand why a machine couldn’t help her move, why she wouldn’t
wake up."

They took his mother’s body to New Delhi. "I
remember this vividly because as the only son present I lit the
pyre," he says.

With Barsa’s death, the Kellys lost their ‘centre’

Pada did not have the heart to go through the
ordeal of spotting her flesh and blood pinned up on the wall. "I
just couldn’t bring myself to go inside the hospital to do it. I
waited in the chapel outside and they (her relatives) went in. We were
able to find Brinda and Arti but not Vishnu. By God’s grace they
were pretty intact."

For years, she lived with the ache of not being
able to have "the physical experience of saying a final
goodbye" to her husband. "It hovers in your mind. I would
often wake up with the dream of him having returned."

Kelly found her mother’s body. She realises,
"We were actually one of the fortunate few. We took my mother’s
ashes to Calcutta."

Many said their final goodbyes in a Cork
crematorium. "It was a bizarre scene," says Pada.
"Hundreds of relatives, all walking around dazed and numbed, each
trying to be supportive of the other. To cope with their personal pain
in a bizarre way, people were going around congratulating other
families that had been successful in retrieving bodies."

Learning to cope

Pada went back to Sudbury, where "the whole
city was out." The community arranged a multi-faith prayer
service for her husband Vishnu, like he had done for the murder of
Indira Gandhi. "It is very ironic that these people had to do
that for him. The whole community turned out".

Pada sold her house and moved back to Mumbai where
she immersed herself in dance. It was her way of coping. After five
years in India, she returned to Toronto. "After all, this is my
home. This is where I wanted to be. This is where I wanted to start my
new career."

Pada, an accomplished dancer, has now become
"a real champion of the arts being a very, very important tool
for social and personal change."

Does time heal the scars? Does she still dream of
her husband returning? "Not so often now," she says softly.
"There are moments that are very difficult to cope (with) and I
don’t know if I have the strength."

But she says she has found peace. "I think the
spiritual journey had begun from that moment (of loss). I could feel
those changes happening within me as I was beginning to accept the
inevitability of something like this — much as I questioned why it
happened."

Gupta "made a decision I would somehow, if I
could, either serve the community or work in the justice system.
Because the senselessness of the crime — innocents (killed) who had
nothing to do with political goals — made me realise how unfair the
world is. My father has always raised me to help those who are in need
whenever possible. He guided me and gave me the strength to be where I
am today.

"I feel proud working in the Justice
Department, doing my part to make the country safer."

Bonds of tragedy: Susheel Gupta (right) with Daniel Brown, an Irish sailor who was member of a rescue team

Revisiting grief

Gupta attended the memorial service in Cork to mark
the 20th anniversary of the tragedy — of which Canadian Prime
Minister Paul Martin was a part. So did Pada, "to make peace with
myself."

"Because I believe we waited 20 years hoping
that some day — none of us from the families ever sought retribution
— we would know their lives were not (lost) in vain," says Pada.

"At least their lives could point to
generations of future Canadians that the Air-India tragedy is one
indication how systems break down in a country. And how something like
that should never happen."

Kelly did not want to revisit the grief. "I
did not want to go to Ireland for the 20th anniversary," she
says. "I am talking to a lot of my friends. And they all just
bring back a lot of emotions — how we felt there, feelings of utter
disbelief and remorse. Just seeing how many families were destroyed. I
will always think that day was the destruction of our family.

"I am now 40," she adds. "We see the
members (of the Victims Families Association) getting elderly.

"When the 30th anniversary comes many, many of
these people are not going to be around."

The horror

Life has moved on for the Kanishka victims’
families. The grief, as it always does, has dulled. But the sense of
incredulity, indignation and frustration has remained the same. They
feel the 329 lives could have been saved had the Canadian government
been more alert to the threat. Most families point out there were
warnings from the American FBI that went unheeded.

"We have learnt to cope with it (the loss) but
the bigger issue is the government must continue to fortify itself and
continue to be ever ready for another act of terrorism," says
Pada. Otherwise, "it will be very, very irresponsible on their
part.

"There was enough evidence that some
catastrophe like this was being planned," she adds.

"There’s no doubt there was a failure there.
The fact that we believe it could have been prevented deepens our
wounds further," says Radhakrishnan. The acquittal of the two
main accused in the bombing case has convinced him that "the
Canadian justice system has failed us. And the Canadian justice system
works more in favour of the criminals than the victims."

Rob Alexander lost his father Dr A.M. Alexander in
the tragedy. "People should remember what happened. The flight
was mainly full of Canadians, my father included. The Canadian
community at large should remember that the plane was not just full of
Indians but Canadians too.

"They should remember it was one of the first
acts of terrorism, one of the worst in the world. Canadians should
realise that if nothing has happened since that horrendous act of
terrorism, that should be a bit of a wake-up call too.

"I think it (the tragedy) was due to the lack
of understanding of the complexity of the issue (the demand for a Sikh
state, Khalistan) in Canada," says Pada, "a lack of cultural
sensitivity on the part of the law-enforcement agencies.

"It is so important for all Canadians to know
that when you entrust your life, the law-enforcement agencies are
doing the right job for you," she adds. She feels "there was
a weakness in the system."

She wants to "tell other family members —
and Canadians at large — that they must realise that internationally
Canada is being seen as soft on terrorism. That is not a very nice
reputation to have.

"Canada has to understand that the
demographics are suggesting that we have communities here from
different cultural backgrounds who are great assets to Canada. But at
the same time we are also having to condemn and combat certain
ideological issues that they bring with them. So, we have to raise the
bar of preparedness. We cannot presume that Canada is the same as it
was 20 years ago."

She is not sure whether Canada has learnt the
lesson of one of the most horrendous acts of terrorism in history. For
her, the saddest part is that "we are still in denial mode."

How do you close such a painful chapter of so many
lives? Gupta says most "can’t begin closure even if they want
to. I would think closure can truly start once the public inquiry is
completed and we have the answers why our government failed to protect
us and why the government failed to arrive at the truth.